Editing Hercule Poirot (section)

=== Retirement ===

<blockquote>That's the way of it. Just a case or two, just one case more – the Prima Donna's farewell performance won't be in it with yours, Poirot.<ref>{{harvnb|Christie|2006a}} Dr. Burton in the Preface</ref></blockquote>

Confusion surrounds Poirot's retirement. Most of the cases covered by Poirot's private detective agency take place before his retirement to attempt to grow larger [[Squash (plant)|marrows]], at which time he solves ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd''. It has been said that the twelve cases related in ''The Labours of Hercules'' (1947) must refer to a different retirement, but the fact that Poirot specifically says that he intends to grow marrows indicates that these stories also take place before ''Roger Ackroyd'', and presumably Poirot closed his agency once he had completed them. 

There is specific mention in "The Capture of Cerberus" of the twenty-year gap between Poirot's previous meeting with Countess Rossakoff and this one. If the ''Labours'' precede the events in ''Roger Ackroyd'', then the Ackroyd case must have taken place around twenty years ''later'' than it was published, and so must any of the cases that refer to it. One alternative would be that having failed to grow marrows once, Poirot is determined to have another go, but this is specifically denied by Poirot himself.<ref>{{harvnb|Christie|2004a|loc=Chapter 13}} in response to the suggestion that he might take up gardening in his retirement, Poirot answers "Once the vegetable marrows, yes – but never again".</ref> 

In "The Erymanthian Boar", a character is said to have been turned out of Austria by the [[Nazism|Nazis]], implying that the events of ''[[The Labours of Hercules]]'' took place after 1937. Another alternative would be to suggest that the Preface to the ''Labours'' takes place at one date but that the labours are completed over a matter of twenty years. None of the explanations is especially attractive.

In terms of a rudimentary chronology, Poirot speaks of retiring to grow marrows in Chapter 18 of ''The Big Four''{{sfn|Christie|2004b|loc=Chapter 18}} (1927) which places that novel out of published order before ''Roger Ackroyd''. He declines to solve a case for the Home Secretary because he is retired in Chapter One of ''Peril at End House'' (1932). He has certainly retired at the time of ''Three Act Tragedy'' (1935) but he does not enjoy his retirement and repeatedly takes cases thereafter when his curiosity is engaged. 

He continues to employ his secretary, Miss Lemon, at the time of the cases retold in ''Hickory Dickory Dock'' and ''Dead Man's Folly'', which take place in the mid-1950s. It is, therefore, better to assume that Christie provided no authoritative chronology for Poirot's retirement but assumed that he could either be an active detective, a consulting detective, or a retired detective as the needs of the immediate case required.

One consistent element about Poirot's retirement is that his fame declines during it, so that in the later novels he is often disappointed when characters, especially younger characters, recognise neither him nor his name:

<blockquote>"I should, perhaps, Madame, tell you a little more about myself. I am ''Hercule Poirot''."<br/>

The revelation left Mrs Summerhayes unmoved.<br/>

"What a lovely name," she said kindly. "Greek, isn't it?"{{sfn|Christie|1952|loc=Chapter 4}}</blockquote>